Current Affairs Update – 2-5 March, 2017

Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs Update of 2,3,4 and 5 March, 2017. These are important for the upcoming SBI PO Mains, NIACL Assistant Mains as well as other insurance and bank exams.

Current Affairs at a Glance 2nd to 5th March, 2017 – Click/Tap here to show

GoogleIndia and Telangana government have signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at supporting
the digitisation efforts of the state.

After a gap of five years, State Bank of India has decided to
reintroduce penalty on non-maintenance
of minimum balance in accounts from April 1, and revised charges on other
services, including ATMs. The country’s largest bank will permit savings bank
account holders to deposit cash three times a month free of charges and levy Rs 50 plus service tax on every
transaction beyond that.

Finance Ministry has agreed in-principle to allow public sector banks to
offer stock options to their employees from next financial year — a
move aimed at retaining experienced hands with better incentives. According to
sources, Employee Stock Option plans
(ESOPs) could be given by those banks which have not only earned
substantial profit but also made remarkable improvement in managing NPAs.

BhartiAirtel and MillicomInternationalCellularSA on 3 March 2017 signed an agreement
to combine operations in Ghana. The agreement was signed between Tigo Ghana
Limited, subsidiary of Millicom and Airtel Ghana Limited, subsidiary of Airtel.

Cab aggregator Ola on said it has signed MoU with
Government of MadhyaPradesh to create 25,000 entrepreneurs
in the state.

Few banks, including ICICI, Axis and HDFC, have decided to charge a penalty
of minimum Rs 150 on cash withdrawals and deposit at bank branches after four
free transactions. As per reports, the
move is aimed at discouraging cash transactions and furthering the digital
payment drive.

Online travel portal Yatra.com on Thursday announced that they have signed an MoU with the MadhyaPradeshgovernment to
jointly promote homestays in the
region.

Justice (retd) Arijit Pashayat, the Vice-Chairman of the Supreme
Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT) on black money, on 2 March
2017 said so far the amount of unearthed black money fromacrossthecountry stands to Rs 70 thousand crore.

The Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit
organization, on 28 February 2017 released the Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS) 2016 in New Delhi. The
survey was published by the organization with the theme – Shaping India’s Urban Agenda. India’s cities scored between 2.1 and
4.4 out of a total of 10. Thiruvananthapuram
city retained its number one position in 2016. Pune came in at second, up two ranks over 2015 and Kolkata, third, same as 2015.

Sudhin Mathur has been named
Managing Director of Motorola Mobility India and has been inducted as a
full-time director on the company’s Board.

Popular singer Robyn
Rihanna Fenty was on 28 February 2017 conferred with the 2017 Peter J Gomes Humanitarian of the Year Award of
the Harvard University.

The World Hearing Day 2017 was observed globally on 3 March 2017 with the theme ‘Action for hearing loss: make a sound
investment‘.

The World Wildlife Day was observed across the world on 3 March 2017 with the theme ‘Listen to the young voices‘.

Financial and Banking News:

Google India inks MoU with Telangana government to support the
digitisation efforts of the state?

Google India and Telangana
government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at supporting
the digitisation efforts of the state.

Google India will provide Google
Cloud credits and access to all cloud platform products to eligible startups
engaged with Telangana government’s T-Hub initiative and through its Developer
Relations team provide technical mentorship and advisory support to various
startups, a release issued by the government said here today.

The MoU was signed yesterday in
the presence of Telangana Minister for IT and Industries K T Rama Rao and
Google India representatives, it said.

Other initiatives as a part of
the agreement include, making all government websites mobile friendly and
introduce programmes to help local small and medium businesses go online and
stay safe online.

Google India will introduce
Android Fundamentals courses for students pursuing engineering and MCA to skill
them on mobile app development.

SBI to charge for breach of minimum balance from April

After a gap of five years, State
Bank of India has decided to reintroduce penalty on non-maintenance of minimum
balance in accounts from April 1, and revised charges on other services,
including ATMs.

The country’s largest bank will
permit savings bank account holders to deposit cash three times a month free of
charges and levy Rs 50 plus service tax on every transaction beyond that.

In case of current account, the
levy could go as high as Rs 20,000.

As per the list of revised
charges of SBI, failure to maintain Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in accounts
will attract penalty of up to Rs 100 plus service tax.

In metropolitan areas, there will
be a charge of Rs 100 plus service tax, if the balance falls below 75 per cent
of the MAB of Rs 5,000. If the shortfall is 50 per cent or less of the MAB,
then the bank will charge Rs 50 plus service tax.

The charges and MAB varies
according to the location of bank. It is minimum in case of rural branches.

A senior SBI official said the
bank had suspended levying charges on breach of minimum balance requirements in
2012 to acquire new customers.

Withdrawal of cash from ATMs will
attract a charge of up to Rs 20 if the number of transactions exceeds three
from other bank’s ATMs in a month and Rs 10 for more than five withdrawals from
SBI ATMs.

FinMin gives in-principle nod to ESOPs by PSU banks

Finance Ministry has agreed
in-principle to allow public sector banks to offer stock options to their
employees from next financial year — a move aimed at retaining experienced
hands with better incentives.

According to sources, Employee
Stock Option plans (ESOPs) could be given by those banks which have not only
earned substantial profit but also made remarkable improvement in managing
NPAs.

It will help motivate employees
to work towards strengthening the financial status of their banks so that their
share value rises, sources said.

Although the Finance Ministry has
given in-principle nod, the finer details are being worked out like what
percentage of profit can be earmarked for ESOPs, sources said, adding, this is
based on the suggestion of Banks Board Bureau (BBB).

One of the proposals is to issue
shares equivalent to a certain percentage of banks’ net profit to employees
which is being examined.

For large banks, the ESOPs could
be as much as 5 per cent of profit after tax while for the smaller ones, it
could be about 3 per cent but no decision has been taken yet, sources said.

Bharti Airtel and Millicom
International Cellular SA on 3 March
2017 signed an agreement to combine operations in Ghana. The agreement was
signed between Tigo Ghana Limited, subsidiary of Millicom and Airtel Ghana
Limited, subsidiary of Airtel.

The transaction is subject to
obtaining approvals from the relevant authorities in Ghana and the satisfaction
of customary closing conditions. Once completed, it will provide the
opportunity to develop nationwide digital infrastructure and services in Ghana.

As per the agreement, Airtel and
Millicom will have equal ownership and governance rights in the combined
entity.

The combined business will serve
nearly 10 million customers, of which 5.6 million are data customers.

It will cover more than 80 per cent
of Ghana’s population with high-speed data and provide the widest 3G coverage
across the country.

The combined business is also
expected to provide Ghanaian customers with a major boost in both rural and
urban network coverage, in turn, translating into better voice quality,
high-speed data services and reinforced network stability and resilience.

With the combined fibre footprint
and increased number of data centres, enterprise customers such as large
corporations and SMEs will have access to a diverse portfolio of world-class
solutions.

Mobile Financial Services will
also be greatly enhanced with combined agent networks and platforms.

Ola signs MoU with Madhya Pradesh govt to create 25,000 entrepreneurs

Cab aggregator Ola on said it has
signed MoU with Government of Madhya Pradesh to create 25,000 entrepreneurs in
the state.

The MOU is focused towards
training, skill development and empowerment of 25,000 driver partners in the
next two years, Ola said in a release.

It said the MoU has been signed
with Madhya Pradesh State Skill Development Mission (MPSSDM) and Directorate of
Skill Development (Technical Education & Skill Development Dept).

The company has set a goal of
nurturing micro-entrepreneurship and skilling 50 lakh drivers by 2020.

Ola said as part of this
initiative, it will work closely with the State’s Skill Development Department
in providing essential training infrastructure, utilities and technology
framework that will ensure an improved employment scenario for the youth of
Madhya Pradesh.

HDFC, ICICI, Axis to charge Rs 150 after 4 free transactions

Few banks, including ICICI, Axis
and HDFC, have decided to charge a penalty of minimum Rs 150 on cash
withdrawals and deposit at bank branches after four free transactions.

As per reports, the move is aimed
at discouraging cash transactions and furthering the digital payment drive.

Highlights of circulars/notices of these three banks

HDFCBank: This leading
private sector bank said that the bank would also cap the third party cash
transactions at Rs 25000 per day.

AxisBank: At Axis Bank,
the first five transactions or Rs 10 lakhs of cash deposits or withdrawals
would be free and charged at Rs 5 per thousand rupees or Rs 150, whichever is
higher.

ICICIBank: The bank on
its website said that there will be no charge for first four transactions a
month in home branch. Thereafter, Rs 5 per thousand would be charged and this
charge will be subject to a minimum of 150 rupees in the same month. The third
party limit would be Rs 50000 per day.

In case of ICICI bank, for
non-home branches after free transaction, the bank would charge Rs 5 per
thousand rupees subject to a minimum of 150 rupees. For anywhere cash deposit,
the Bank would charge Rs 5 per thousand rupees (subject to a minimum of 150) at
branches, while at Cash Acceptance Machine deposit would be charged after first
free transaction of a calendar month at Rs 5 per thousand rupees.

Yatra signs MoU with Madhya Pradesh to promote homestays

Online travel portal Yatra.com on
Thursday announced that they have signed an MoU with the Madhya Pradesh
government to jointly promote homestays in the region.

“The partnership will enable
Yatra to promote all the state tourism approved homestays, wherein travelers
can rent a room in the home of a local family (host) or the entire house.

With an intend of establishing
itself as the largest homestays curator of over 3000 homestays across 130
cities across India, come March the portal will sign two more MoU’s with the
Governments of Odisha and Chhattisgarh,” Yatra said in a release.

The Union Government on 2 March
2017 launched four new freight sector initiatives to increase the profitability
of the Indian Railways.

The initiatives were launched by
the Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu at the National Rail
Museum in New Delhi.

The newly launched freight sector initiatives are –

Roll-on-Roll-off
(RORO)

Long Term
Tariff Contracts and Agreements

Double Stack
Dwarf Containers

Indian
Railway’s Business Plan 2017-18

Salient features of Roll-on-Roll-off (RORO)

In the Railway Budget for 2016-17,
Suresh Prabhu announced that an action plan will be developed and implemented
to expand the freight basket through either containerization or new delivery
models.

‘Roll-on-Roll-off’ is one such
new delivery model which can provide multimodal transport mix.

RORO services were started on
Konkan Railway and then proliferated to ECR and NFR successfully last year.

Salient features of Long Term Tariff Contracts and Agreements

Under this policy, long term
tariff agreements and contracts will be signed by the Indian Railways with key
freight customers using pre-determined price escalation principle.

The agreements will benefit key
industries such as cement, fertilizers and steel.

These contracts and agreements
will result in multiple benefits such as stability and certainty of long term
freight rates to the customers, assured supply of wagons and rakes to the
customers through preferential traffic order (PTO) and incremental guaranteed
volume of traffic to the Indian Railways.

Salient features of Trial Run of Double Stack Dwarf Containers

This measure is a part of the
government’s intention to expand the freight basket and recapture the traffic
through either containerization or new delivery models.

Double Stack Dwarf Containers are
designed with 6 feet 4 inches height to run under wire for maximum throughput
with increased loadability.

Salient features of Indian Railway’s Business Plan 2017-18

The plan is a continuation of
government’s sustained efforts to make the journeys of passengers more
pleasurable and to make Indian Railway’s freight business more responsive to
the needs of customers.

The plan seeks to revamp railways through partnerships with
stakeholders, RORO, dwarf containers, road-railers and new terminals.

Aadhaar -based ticketing
application will be launched by May 2017.

SC appointed SIT detects 70 thousand crore rupees Black Money

Justice (retd) Arijit Pashayat,
the Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team
(SIT) on black money, on 2 March 2017 said so far the amount of unearthed black
money from across the country stands to Rs 70 thousand crore.

This Rs 70000 crore of black
money includes more than Rs 16000 crore, which was detected after a probe was
launched into the global leaks about Indians stashing funds abroad. It was
unearthed through different schemes of the government.

Justice Arijit Pashayat gave the
information after a high-level meeting of SIT on black money. The meet was held
in Cuttack. In addition to this, he also said that the SIT is hopeful that the
amount will rise substantially in coming days.

Justice Pasayat also informed
that the committee will submit its sixth report to the Apex court in the first week
of April 2017.

He said the SIT during the past
two years has made several recommendations through its interim reports to the
Apex court for the Central government to check the generation and tap the black
money at the source.

He said, that on the SIT’s
recommendation, the Government has already declared that cash transaction
beyond Rs 3 lakh is to be treated as illegal and punishable.

DMRL, JSHL signs Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology of High
Nitrogen Steel

Defence Metallurgical Research
Laboratory (DMRL), Hyderabad and Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited (JSHL) on 1
March 2017 signed the Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology of High
Nitrogen Steel (HNS) for armour applications. DMRL is a premier research
laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

The High Nitrogen Steel (HNS)
technology is a step forward towards Army’s quest for lighter and
high-performance armouring material as compared to materials that are used at
present. Apart from its use in Army’s armouring, HNS has the potential of being
used in numerous civilian applications.

Minister of State for Defence, Dr
Subhash Bhamre who congratulated both DRDO and DMRL for the achievement also
called upon both public as well as private Industries and Ordnance Factories to
use this material extensively in their products.

Non-financial news related to India and states:

DRDO hands over 3 products to Indian Army

The Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) on 2 March 2017 handed over three of its
products for induction into the Indian Army at a function in New Delhi.

The Defence Minister Manohar
Parrikar, who presided the function, handed over the products to the Chief of
the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat on behalf of DRDO.

The three new products are –

Weapon Locating Radar (WLR),
SWATHI

NBC Recce vehicle

NBC Drugs

Annual Survey of India’s City Systems 2016 released

The Janaagraha Centre for
Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organization, on 28 February 2017
released the Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS) 2016 in New Delhi.

The survey was published by the
organization with the theme – Shaping India’s Urban Agenda.

The ASICS 2016 evaluated 21
cities in 18 States across India and objectively assessed their ability to
provide citizens a high quality of life.

Highlights of ASICS 2016

India’s cities scored between 2.1
and 4.4 out of a total of 10. Thiruvananthapuram city retained its number one
position in 2016.

Pune came in at second, up two
ranks over 2015 and Kolkata, third, same as 2015.

The biggest gainer is
Bhubaneswar. It was up by eight ranks and stood at the 10th position.

This was on the back of a slew of
reforms such as instituting municipal cadres, tiered spatial planning even at
the ward level and a single window clearance process for development projects
in conformity with plans.

The decision was taken by the
State Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu
Naidu, in Amaravati.

A proposal for renaming the
airports would now be sent to the Union Government for approval.

In addition, the State Cabinet
also accepted the Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board Draft Bill. The board works in
the place of Andhra Pradesh Port department.

The Cabinet also decided to float
new liquor policy by introducing amendments in the Assembly, which would be
meeting from 6 March 2017 at the newly inaugurated Assembly building.

The State Cabinet also gave green
signal to 600 acre land allocation for Bhogapuram Airport and 75 acres for Savita
University in Amaravati.

Operation Thunderbird & Operation Save Kurma of WCCB

The terms Operation Thunderbird
and Operation Save Kurma were in the news in the first week of March 2017 as
the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest
and Climate Change divulged information related to these operations.

Operation Thunderbird

Wildlife Crime Control Bureau
coordinated this operation between 30 January and 19 February 2017.

Operation Thunderbird is the
code-name for INTERPOL’s multi-national and multi-species enforcement
operation.

The operation was convened by the
WCCB between 15 December 2016 and 30 January 2017. It was a species specific
operation on turtles.

A total of 15, 739 live turtles
were recovered from 45 suspects, who have interstate linkages.

NGT bans camping activities within 100 m of Ganga in Uttarakhand

The National Green Tribunal (NGT)
on 2 March 2017 ordered a ban on camping activities within 100 metres of the
Ganga in Uttarakhand.

The decision was taken by a bench
of justices headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar. The ban will be imposed
from Kaudiyala to Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.

There are 33 beaches along the
riverside of Ganga.

The NGT order follows a complaint
by activist Vikrant Tongad who had moved the tribunal against camping along the
river.

Vikrant had contended that
camping and river rafting, when done without any regulations, would disturb the
environment.

NMCG, Rotary India signs MoU for Namami Gange Programme

The National Mission for Clean
Ganga (NMCG) and the Rotary India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
for the success of Namami Gange Programme. The MoU was signed on 2 March 2017
in New Delhi.

The MoU was signed by Director
General, National Mission for Clean Ganga U P Singh and Vice Chairman of Rotary
India P T Prabhakar.

The collaboration would initially
focus on synergizing the strength of Rotary International for Ganga
Rejuvenation without any additional financial commitment from NMCG.

As part of the MoU, the Rotary
India will undertake activities and campaigns to create awareness in schools
and communities about Ganga rejuvenation and thereby reducing the pollution
flowing into the river.

Union Minister of Drinking Water
and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar on 1 March 2017 launched Swachh Shakti
Saptah, a week-long programme of activities across the country to highlight the
role of women in Swachh Bharat Mission and to recognize their leadership.

The Ministry made the national
launch of Swachh Shakti Saptaah in Gurugram, Haryana, at a joint event with the
Haryana Government.

The launch was done with release
of balloons by ground level women leaders, inauguration of a sanitation related
exhibition and a series of folk cultural presentation relating to women and
Swachhta.

Deputy Commissioners of 11 ODF
(Open Defecation Free) districts of Haryana were honoured on the occasion.

Over 1000 women swachhta
champions from grassroots in Haryana attended the event.

The launch marked the achievement
of Swachh Bharat Milestone as over 100 districts in India were declared as ODF
districts and over 1.7 lakh villages have become ODF.

The Indian Navy on 2 March 2017
successfully conducted the maiden firing of an anti-ship missile from an INS
Kalvari class submarine.

The test firing was conducted in
the Arabian Sea and the missile successfully hit a surface target at extended
ranges during the trial firing.

INS Kalvari is a class of
diesel-electric attack submarine. These submarines are based on the
Scorpene-class submarine being built for the Indian Navy.

While INS Kalvari is designed by
French naval defence and energy company DCNS, they are being manufactured by
Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai.

Appointments:

Sudhin Mathur appointed Motorola India Managing Director

Sudhin Mathur has been named
Managing Director of Motorola Mobility India and has been inducted as a
full-time director on the company’s Board.

He will also continue to serve in
the role of Executive Director for Lenovo MBG India.

Mathur replaces Amit Boni, who
was serving as General Manager for Motorola India.

In October 2016, Boni
transitioned to the global strategy team within the company.

P K Purwar appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of MTNL

P K Purwar was on 1 March 2017
appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of state-run telecom
major Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).

His appointment was approved by
the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for the duration of five years.

Purwar is currently working as
Director (Finance) in MTNL. Purwar held the additional charge of the post of
MTNL CMD between June 2014 and June 2015. In June 2016, he was again given this
additional charge.

Swadheen Kshatriya sworn in as Maharashtra’s Chief Commissioner of RTS

Former Chief Secretary of
Maharashtra Swadheen Kshatriya was on 1 March 2017 sworn-in as the Chief
Commissioner of Right to Services (RTS) of Maharashtra. Kshatriya’s tenure will
be of five years.

Prior to this appointment,
Kshatriya retired as Chief Secretary of Maharashtra. Senior IAS officer Sumit
Mullick took over as the new Chief Secretary of Maharashtra in his place.

His oath of office was
administered by Lokayukta Justice (retd) M L Tahiliani at Sahyadri state guest
house in Mumbai. State Chief Information Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, former
CIC Suresh Joshi and some of the state’s top bureaucrats were present on the
occasion.

Awards & Honors:

Singer Rihanna conferred with 2017 Humanitarian of the Year Award by
Harvard University

Popular singer Robyn Rihanna
Fenty was on 28 February 2017 conferred with the 2017 Peter J Gomes
Humanitarian of the Year Award of the Harvard University.

She was awarded for her charity
work of building a state-of- the-art centre for oncology and nuclear medicine
to diagnose and treat breast cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in
Bridgetown, Barbados.

Moreover, in 2012, she founded
Clara Lionel Foundation Global Scholarship Program, named after her
grandparents, for students attending college in the US from Caribbean
countries.

The program also supports the
Global Partnership for Education and Global Citizen Project to offer children
with access to education in over 60 developing countries, giving priority to
girls, and those affected by lack of access to education in the world today.

Born in Barbados, singer, actress
and songwriter Robyn Rihanna Fenty has sold more than 200 million records, won
eight Grammy Awards and scored 14 number-one hits till date.

Jawaharlal Nehru University wins Visitor’s Award for the Best
University 2017

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
on 2 March 2017 won the annual Visitor’s Award for the Best University
2017.

Pranab Mukherjee, President of
India, will present the Visitor’s Awards for the year 2017 at a function on 6
March 2017 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The function will be held at a part of the
‘Festival of Innovations.’

On the other hand, Deepak Pant
from Central University of Himachal Pradesh won the Visitor’s Award for
‘Innovation.’ He won the award for development of a reactor for direct
conversion of waste plastic to LPG in small scale.

The Visitor’s Award for
‘Research’ is jointly won by Dr Shyam Sunder from Banaras Hindu University and
Professor Niranjan Karak from Tezpur University. Dr Sunder won the award for
his work in the area of diagnosis and treatment of Indian Kala-azar while
Professor won it for development of renewable resource based bio-degradable hyper-branched
polymer nano-composites as self-cleaning, self-healing and bio-compatible smart
sustainable futuristic material.

Days:

World Hearing Day 2017 observed globally

The World Hearing Day 2017 was
observed globally on 3 March 2017 with the theme ‘Action for hearing loss: make
a sound investment’.

This year’s theme draws attention
to the economic impact of hearing loss. Hearing loss poses a high cost for the
economy globally and has a significant impact on the lives of those affected.
World Hearing Day 2017 highlights actions which can be undertaken by decision-makers
to address hearing loss.

Hearing loss and its consequences
can be mitigated through prevention, screening for early identification,
rehabilitation through hearing devices, captioning and sign language education.

Half of all hearing loss can be
avoided through prevention. Primary health care interventions including
immunizing children against diseases such as measles, meningitis, rubella and
immunizing adolescent girls of reproductive age against rubella will greatly
reduce risk of congenital hearing loss among babies.

World Wildlife Day 2017 observed globally

The World Wildlife Day was
observed across the world on 3 March 2017 with the theme ‘Listen to the young
voices’. The day is seen as an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and
varied forms of wild fauna and flora.

The call of the 2017 UN World
Wildlife Day is to engage and empower the youth. It tends to give a new
opportunity to provide incentives to the youth to tackle conservation issues.
It is also an opportunity for them to engage with one another and together
forge an inspired path to a better world.

The day is celebrated and
implemented by the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in collaboration with other
relevant United Nations organizations.

With 183 Member States, CITES
remains one of the world’s most powerful tools for biodiversity conservation
through the regulation of trade in wild fauna and flora.